Back in 1957, Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl sparked an obscenity trial because “the words and the sense of the writing is obscene”—and this was decades before the 21st-century advancements in profanity technology we now take for granted. To get a read on what now passes for obscene, check out the interactive Howl game "Are You Obscene?" from the makers of the James Franco-starring film of the same name. It allows you to weigh in on a number of topics—from spray tans to velour sweatpants to Roman Polanski—then see your own ranking of how “obscene” you are, as compared to the “average person’s” 48 percent. But honestly, that gets pretty boring: What’s really interesting is that you can also check out how the topics stack up against each other—at last count, pedophiles, animal cruelty, and abortion clinic bombings are the most obscene, while incest and bestiality are just slightly more acceptable than child beauty pageants—and then submit your own for others to vote on. Surely you can come up with something nastier than the 20 percent of voters who believe that "nacho cheese" is somehow obscene. [via Movieline]
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